Re: Crus, Crures (quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod bracchia vellis)

On 11/06/2024 9:49 p.m., Aidan Kehoe wrote:

   Ar an naoiú lá de mí Meitheamh, scríobh HenHanna:
   > Crus, Crures ("leg") is Not related to Latin crusta (“shell”)
  >
  >            https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Crustacea  is not related
  >
  > Crus, Crures ("leg") is Not related to any word in English or French
 “Crural” exists in anatomy jargon and is used by those who use anatomy jargon.
It would not shock me if something similar were the case in French.
 https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=%22crural%22
 >

Et voilà! There it is in French, same spelling, same origin. Both words first appear in the 16th century (OED 1599, translation of a work by Gaebelkhover; Dauzat says XVI century, from the anatomist Ambroise Paré).
So a direct borrowing from Latin, not an inherited word. Apparently crus was replaced in late Latin by gamba, originally 'horse's leg'.
While "foot" (PIE *ped-) is one of the great stable items, words for 'leg' seem to be much more volatile. (Of course many languages get along without a primary lexical distinction between the two.)